Wk3: Mini Lit Review, Wk4: Mini Lit Review, Wk5: Mini Lit Review, Wk6: Mini Lit Review

Leadership Styles for Leading and Managing Remote and Distributed Workforces

LaTanya Adkins

Trevecca Nazarene University

BUS-8010-O06.2: Current Topics in Leadership and Management

Dr. Robert Roller

June 12, 2022

Leadership Styles for Leading and Managing Remote and Distributed Workforces

Introduction

Advances in technology have changed how teams function. Many workers worldwide work in various places, places away from the traditional office or workspace. Some workers work from home, in hybrid offices, coffee shops, or co-working spaces. Many leaders believe that because everyone works from various locations, leadership is excluded from the regular extemporaneous status updates, impromptu meetings, face-to-face contact with employees, and overall control. Most virtual teams are given a level of autonomy or self-management; however, they must still answer to those in a supervisory role.

Many argue that the leadership style a leader chooses is the key to managing remote virtual workers successfully, but an agreement has not been made on any particular style. Many believe that the leadership style carries a correlation to employee engagement. The literature has a sizable gap regarding the assessment and to what extent leadership styles influence remote teams' effectiveness; however, several studies have identified the impact leadership can have on team performance (Gross, 2018). With technological advances flourishing instead of waning, organizational leaders must find the best way to lead and manage their virtual teams, determining which leadership style will provide the best employee engagement for their virtual teams. This paper discusses recent literature on leadership style theory and its impact on employee engagement with virtual teams.

The role that leadership style plays in virtual teams has been overlooked by most literature, and leadership styles and skills have been discussed heavily for the face-to-face leader (Gross, 2018). All of the reviewed literature defined leadership in a similar manner and referenced formalized leadership studies from the 1950s. Leadership overall is a process of influence where a person engaged in various activities guides those they lead to accomplishing the organization's goals. "By virtual teams, we mean groups of people working on a shared task while interacting primarily or exclusively via information and communication technologies" (Eseryel et al., 2021, p.425). Telework and remote work can be defined as an alternative working arrangement that allows work functions and activities to take place away from the head or principal office at various locations (Aropah et al., 2020). For the purpose of this paper, telework, virtual work, and remote work will be used interchangeably.

Leadership Styles and Trust

The purpose of study for all reviewed literature is identical; the examination of the leadership role in engaging virtual work teams. Aropah et al. argue that leaders with a transformational leadership style should be chosen as the leaders of virtual teams (2020). Vision sharing, coaching, goal sharing, intellectual stimulation, and the creation and sustainability of virtual relationships are provided with the transformational leadership style (Gross, 2018). Much research exists linking the Transformational leadership style and trust as major factors between leadership styles and virtual engagement (Mutha & Srivastava, 2021). Eseryel et al. subscribe to another framework suggesting that visionary leadership is important for self-managing teams (2021). According to Eseryel et al., those are leaders who update shared mental models and norms in order to develop structures to fit new circumstances (2021). Using the Leadership Style Inventory developed by a group of professors from the University of Southern California, Furumo (2018) suggested the Commanding and Supportive leadership styles for virtual team engagement.

According to Furumo, trust is the glue that holds virtual teams together and allows workers to be more satisfied (2018). Mutha & Srivastava confirmed the relationship between leadership influence and employee engagement mediated by trust (2021). One of the critical factors to the success of remote working and leadership is trust (Aropah et al., 2020).

Limitations and Research Opportunities

There is scarce literature on current theory to guide research on the leadership of remote teams (Gross,2018). This provides room for many research opportunities. There is ample space for government, educational, and private entities to evaluate the correlation between leadership style, engagement, and remote teams.

The sample studied by Mutha & Srivastava did not cover the teams' multicultural facets leaving many variables unconsidered (2021). Further research should focus on the prolonged effects of leadership style on virtual employees through cultural integration (Gross, 2018).

The study conducted by Aropah and the team used primary and secondary data. A questionnaire was distributed to 46.88% of employees at the National Public Procurement Agency in Indonesia. The field studied was a female-dominated industry; therefore, the study's results cannot be generalized to all fields. The quasi-experimental study used by Furumo (2018) studied participants from the University of Hawaii and Niagra University. Both are American institutions, one is mainland, and the other is on the island. The issue with this is that the participants are students and not employees. There is a motivational difference between completing work for grades and work for pay.

Further research should broaden the presented framework from the current research, exploring specific leadership behaviors with virtual teams and identifying those that produce new leaders (Eseryel et al., 2021).

Conclusion

Despite the need for more current research to be conducted, it is evident that virtual leadership requires alignment with the leaders' skills and employees' capabilities to achieve the organization's goals throughout time and space (Gross, 2018). Not only can new avenues be forged to understand the links between leadership styles and the virtual environment, but future studies could also help influence leadership and development training for emerging leaders.

References

Aropah, V. D., Sarma, M., & Sumertajaya, I. M. (2020). Factors affecting employee performance during work from home. International Research Journal of Business Studies, 13(2), 201–214. https://doi-org.trevecca.idm.oclc.org/10.21632/irjbs.13.2.201-214

Eseryel, U. Y., Crowston, K., & Heckman, R. (2021). Functional and visionary leadership in self-managing virtual teams. Group & Organization Management, 46(2), 424–460. https://doi-org.trevecca.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/1059601120955034

Furumo, K. (2018). Leadership, trust, and participation in virtual. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 18(3), 24–30. https://doi-org.trevecca.idm.oclc.org/10.33423/jop.v18i3.1287

Gross, R. (2018). Connecting the links between leadership styles and virtual team effectiveness. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 26(2), 185–205. https://doi-org.trevecca.idm.oclc.org/10.1142/S0218495818500073

Mutha, P., & Srivastava, M. (2021). Engaging virtual teams: do leadership & trust matter? Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(4), 732–747.